Three years ago, Black Fox Brewing set up shop in Colorado Springs and started creating Belgian-inspired beers with little regard for style definitions – along with the occasional profane T-shirt.

Head brewer/owner John Schneider – who started work at Bristol Brewing in the Springs about 10 years ago and has been contract-brewing his own beer at the Bristol brewhouse – likes skateboarding, punk and hip-hop. He uses terms like jack-ass and smart-ass to describe himself. He thinks too many breweries are bland and conservative.

So Schneider, in keeping with his own philosophy, is taking somewhat of a leap: He has temporarily halted production and moving forward with plans to open his own brewery and tap house in Denver. Schneider has been scouting locations around downtown but has yet to secure financing, he said.

“We’ve been brewing really fun beers, bastardizing styles, and just trying to have fun, you know?” Schneider said. “Now we’re at a point where we’re ready to go open up our own shop, get our own atmosphere, our own tasting room, our own attitude, our own personality … All that stuff.”

Schneider and his wife, Nicole, moved to Colorado Springs from Albuquerque in 1998 and found friends and many filled growlers at Bristol. Schneider was a “regular bar drunk” without any brewing experience who found part-time work helping with the bottling line, then was hired as an assistant brewer.

The new-ish Black Fox logo

He learned the craft under Jason Yester, who went on to found Trinity Brewing, and then left for a year to work as head brewer at a brewpub in Arizona. Upon his return, Schneider proposed to Mike Bristol that he start a garage-sized brewery while continuing to work at Bristol.

Bristol suggested that Schneider instead contract-brew out of Bristol, and Black Fox Brewing was born.

“We just try to be creative, almost kind of a culinary approach,” Schneider said. “We are looking to create a flavor, not necessarily dictated by style guidelines.”

The brewery’s Siempre Loco is a big saison, 7.2 percent ABV, with cumin, black pepper and lime zest – an ode to the Southwest (Schneider was born in Los Angeles and Nicole is from New Mexico).

La Noche del Diablo (it means “devil’s night”) is a black saison, dark like a stout but not as thick, with hatch red chiles, cayenne and cinnamon, aged on Ghiraridelli dark chocolate and Montmorency cherries. A 7 percent ABV Belgian brown is fermented with an abbey yeast, then aged on coffee, caramel and vanilla beans.

Black Fox beers have been available on tap around Colorado Springs and at select other locations, including Denver beer bars like Freshcraft and Star Bar.

Because Black Fox beer is poured in the Bristol taproom, Schneider has never brewed beers that would compete with Bristol’s own IPA, wheat or Scottish ale. He said that will change with the move to Denver.

“Once were on our own, we’re going to do all kinds of styles – the standards you’d expect to find, but we’re still going to focus on having fun with the other brews we try to do,” he said.

Schneider said Denver makes sense because “we think our attitude and style and whatnot would be better received in a bigger city.” He gives as a case in point Bristol’s refusal to sell a Black Fox T-shirt that said, “Drink Black Fox” on the front and “Whose s*** are you putting in your mouth?” on the back.

“This is an adult product,” Schneider said. “We are all adults. We’re allowed to cuss. We’re allowed to have fun. I think a lot of breweries are too afraid of that. We might be a little too radical, but we want to see some of that.”

Schneider has been looking for a 10,000-square foot building near downtown (he has checked out the Ballpark, Curtis Park and Baker neighborhoods) to accommodate a 15- to 20-barrel brewing system. He said he doesn’t have any set timeframe.

“We don’t actually have the investment money yet,” he said. “We are still talking to people about that. We didn’t want to stay down here another year when we are feeling as close as we are.”

Schneider ideally would like to locate not far from the Denver Skatepark on 19th at Little Raven. He wants to build a 4-foot mini-halfpipe inside the brewery/taproom space, and a skating setup outside to demo equipment and raise money for local events and charities. He’d like to host pre- and post-parties when bands he knows come through town.

“Most breweries lack personality and attitude,” Schneider said. “A lot of breweries are just too conservative. No matter what you do, you can’t please everyone. You have to be yourself.”

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